Pope Benedict XVI, elected as an "interim pope" by cardinals seeking a breather after nearly three decades of the charismatic John Paul II, is now marking five years as a successor to St. Peter. But the anniversary of his election on April 19, 2005 is clouded by a worldwide sex abuse scandal that touches Benedict himself, follows earlier controversies involving ties with Islam, and is causing the gravest crisis to hit the church in recent times.

Polish investigators have begun examining one of three black boxes from the plane crash that killed the president and 95 other people, after Russian officials said their study of the boxes suggested pilot error was to blame.

Ash from an erupting volcano blanketed the ground in Iceland on Friday and left a widening trail of grounded aircraft across Europe, as thousands of planes stayed on the tarmac to avoid the hazardous cloud.

Desperate to halt the Greek debt crisis that has hammered the euro, fellow eurozone governments tossed it a financial lifeline Sunday, saying they would make euro30 billion in loans available this year alone if Athens asks for the money.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised a hard-won deal to rescue heavily indebted Greece from its financial woes, insisting Friday that it will steady the wobbly euro and showed that Europe could cope with the crisis despite having asked the International Monetary Fund to join in on a bailout package.

The European Commission urged Germany and other eurozone governments Friday to put up a package of government-to-government loans to ease Greece's financial plight and end weeks of financial turmoil and speculation.